Food Obsessions: Sweet Leaf Tea

The other day I was walking through the culinary wasteland of Cleveland, Ohio, looking for lunch that was a cut above Arby’s, and I stumbled upon the Souper Market, a cute, independent place on the city’s West side that sells a wide variety of delicious, homemade soups.

Now, the rich and meaty Jambalaya I had was great, as was the hunk of crusty bread from the Stone Oven that was served alongside it. But the real revelation in this meal was my beverage: Sweet Leaf Tea.

I tried the Citrus Green Tea variety, which is easily the best tea—hot or iced—that I’ve ever come across. Richer and more real than in any iced tea I’ve ever had, its taste was tinged with orange and lime, and elevated by the flavor of pure cane sugar. The syrupy aftertaste that can be found in other sweetened iced teas was entirely absent. All this, and it comes in bottles and cans with a cute, cartoon grandma on the front.

So floored was I by this drink, that I popped back into the Souper Market and got two more cans for the road (my soup was spicy, so this was an extra help).

A few days later I was back on campus, and found myself more disappointed than ever with water, soda, and Gatorade. I was thinking constantly about the Sweet Leaf Citrus Green Tea. So I popped online, found their website, and ordered a case through the link to amazon. Soon my 512 ounces arrived, and since then my drinking habits have been forever changed. Until I find my next obsession, that is.